In the UK, more than 26 million people are signed up to Facebook and as a country we’re obsessed with commenting, tagging, updating and liking on a daily, if not hourly basis.
But, recent statistics from Hitwise suggest that there’s been a slowdown in the UK growth of Facebook – which has led many to believe that it could be at saturation. So, are we really getting sick of the institution that is Facebook?
I’m sure no one at Facebook HQ is panicking just yet, the network continues to grow with more than half a billion registered users worldwide. The slightly more worrying statistics show that over the last six months growth has slowed significantly and people are spending much less time stalking others on the site.
But, this is probably expected, after all it can’t continue to see such a rapid increase in new users when almost half of the population in the UK are on it already – something that has been so popular will inevitably go out of fashion a little.
Personally, I still log into Facebook but for some reason it’s recently started to feel more like part of the routine as opposed to something I enjoy. Gone are the days of getting really excited about putting photos up or crazily tagging everyone from nights out at university - yes, I was THAT girl. But now I prefer to spend most of my time on Tumblr or Twitter, using different networks for different purposes.
And maybe this is the case for others, they’re exploring more when it comes to online and social media. Those that started with a quick hit of Facebook now need their daily dosage of Flickr and a little bit of blogging too. It may be that, like me, people see Facebook as the first step into other social media platforms.
So, what should Facebook do to ensure it keeps getting new users despite the lure of other networks?
Maybe the solution is to branch out to other countries that are dominated by specific social networks. Catering for different cultures. Hey, it might even breakdown the great firewall of China!
There’s certainly no chance of Facebook just fading away, it’s still ludicrously popular and in terms of the sheer volume of people signed up, there’s never been anything quite like it. But, it’ll be interesting to see what the future holds for the nation’s favourite social network. It’s so big now, it even has its own Hollywood movie, The Social Network, but surely when you’re at the top, the only way is down…
Image via oversocialized's Flickr